Ramsey School District Selects Lightpath for Big Bandwidth Boost

JERICHO, NY — Ramsey School District in New Jersey has partnered with Lightpath, a provider of Ethernet-based communication solutions for New York metropolitan area businesses, in support of a wide range of bandwidth-intensive initiatives that demand the power and flexibility of a 100 percent fiber network. A fifteen year Lightpath customer, Ramsey school district was most recently able to double its Internet bandwidth while achieving a 10x increase in private fiber connection speeds between key locations and savings of thousands annually.

Ramsey School District comprises three elementary schools, the Smith Middle School and Ramsey High School. Ramsey took advantage of Lightpath’s popular managed Private Fiber Service to establish multiple 10G connections between key district locations, including the middle and high school, with 1G connections feeding each of the elementary schools. This configuration allows Ramsey to host all network equipment at the high school, simplifying ongoing management and support.

Scaling Up for Growth
“Lightpath has a strong reputation, a great relationship with schools in the area and is known for really high uptime, which is huge,” said Ryan Kenny, director for Ramsey School Districts technology department. “Knowing that we have a partner that can help us do that in the most cost-effective way and with no disruption to learning, is a major advantage for the district, our staff and students. While a 1G Internet connection serves our needs today, we’ll likely have to double or triple that in just the next couple of years.”

Over time, tech-based programs rolled out by schools in the Ramsey district have required ongoing incremental bandwidth increases, made easy by the flexibility of the fiber network supporting them. The district has standardized on Google Apps for Education, which is hosted in the cloud and requires a strong, reliable bandwidth connection. It recently deployed more than 2,000 iPads to students and teachers in support of advanced learning initiatives. Ramsey also needed to support emerging needs, such as robust Wi-Fi access to support 1-to-1 and BYOD programs, as well as state requirements, including for online-based PARCC testing.

Lightpath serves schools in more than two-thirds (68 percent) of the 132 school districts located within the company’s New Jersey footprint. Ramsey School District most recently took advantage of a critical purchasing opportunity afforded by Lightpath’s participation in the New Jersey Middlesex Regional Education Services Commission (MRESC) purchasing cooperative, which aims to expand affordable access to high-bandwidth data services.

“When it comes to our work with schools, Lightpath’s philosophy is ‘if they can dream it, we can support it,’” said Joe Flynn, senior vice president of sales for Lightpath. “Every district is different, bringing distinct needs, ambitions and a vision for how to advance learning in their schools. We are proud of the critical work that we do in this sector and look forward to helping more schools like Ramsey continue to deliver the very best education experiences for students.”